Guild Wars 2

I leveled my necro to 80 at launch, but found the class to be kind of dull and uninspired (especially compared to GW1’s necro, which I thought was a great class).

I’ve returned to the game, and would like to finish up the story quests and explore the rest of the world.

I’m assuming a few things have changed since I left. Can anyone suggest a good build for solo PVE? Once I get the hang of that again, I’d like to run a few dungeons too.

bad news for you mate, you can’t finish story solo.
without big spoilers, last mission is dungeion.
If you give me a bit more inforamtion about you gameplay style, ill make you some quick build.

You used to be able to solo Arah story, I did it with 2 people once. And while they’ve nerfed the dragon encounters, they buffed some of the bosses leading up to the aerial battles, so as a necro, yeah you’d prob still need a team for them. Up to that though, running minions is a really good solo build. Here’s one I run:

(I left healing blank, because you can either run blood fiend or well of blood, whichever the situation demands- dungeons I usually run well of blood at bosses and for harder trash encounters and blood fiend for all others)

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|7.1c.a7.d.1p.a7|6.1k.h1j|1c.7w.1c.7w.1c.7w.1c.7b.1c.7w.1c.7w|1c.9c.1c.68.1c.68.1c.66.1c.68.1c.68|k69.0.u2a6.0.k64|2m.1|0.3y.3z.49.4g|e

There’s one thing you can change if you need to, which is Spite trait IX Training of the Master. You can swap it out for Spite V- Spiteful Spirit, if you know your minions will be killed a lot (which is ok, they’re just utility skills and the reason you’re running so much toughness, it allows you to continue doing damage while they’re on cooldown and tank through the damage recieved if need be). you are quite tanky with this, and while crits will be nearly non-existent, you will hit pretty hard. Definitely not a pvp build though, you need to spec for a lot more damage and crit for pvp, so this wouldn’t work at all. The reason I threw in spectral wall is those minions can get protection off it (if you place it properly) as well as combo off it with combos you would have no access to otherwise as a necro (for boss fights that don’t utilize 1 shot aoe’s like subject alpha or something similarly ridiculous where you wouldn’t mind running minions you can swap bone fiend for flesh wurm and still get the projectile combo finisher, just not x2 but you also gain a blast finisher, teleport/stun break, and poison field even though it’s not reliable) and for bosses with those overpowered 1 shot aoe’s, you can easily just swap out the minion skills for well skills and do just fine.

Thanks for the input, emon and nay.

In GW1 I really enjoyed the Minion Master playstyle, but at GW2 launch that build didn’t seem particularly viable since minions died so fast, had wonky AI, and had long cooldowns. Has this changed?

If MM is viable, I’d definitely like to try that. Thanks for the build suggestion Nay, and Emon I’d be curious to see what you’d recommend for a MM build too.

I am playng PvP only and it will be hard for me to help you with MM for PvE.
But i think something like that will work fine.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/For-ppl-who-started-necro-on-tpvp/first#post1883953

this Post is for new necro in tpvp.
I wrote about most Minions there (not about worm, because to use them in tpvp )

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBIhZakRrdPeTajfPRIzIaUbmB3AHki3LNA;ToAA1Cro2yslYL7Wutkbt+YAB

You can try this build in PvE (i think that you would like to use Axe/focus in PvE, not Dagger/WH)

note: if you cannot access link’d directly, just copy – paste in your browser.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYbjMaV6Zaqb0bKCpCYbSR2GHUh3H9AZDLZA-jQxAUEIqAQyrIas6aMlLRUNA-e

This is the necro well build I used for just general Cursed Shore farming and is very easy to use. The idea is just to aoe the crap out of events and works fine running around the world solo. You just cast stuff and mostly watch stuff die while your golem stops them from getting near you. The idea is to inflict a lot of conditions on enemies with staff and taking advantage of the target the weak trait as well as the scepter 3 attack for hefty damage. I use scepter because it’s a ranged weapon and being further away keeps you safe.

I only picked dagger because it offers a very good blind/condition remove ability. It is somewhat inferior in instances though.

3rd utility is completely arbitrary and can be locust/spectral walk for more speed, or well of darkness for more protection. The points in spite are also arbitrary too. You can get Vampiric Rituals instead if survivability is poor.

One can also switch from Reaper’s precision to hemophilia, but I don’t really care for actual condition damage. I use Reaper’s precision so the scepter can build up life force more easily.

With this, well of suffering and corruption do a lot of damage and also grant protection. There’s also a lot direct AOE damage that drops all sorta effects and scepter 3 skill can usually take off a good 2k to throw in and death shroud’s life transfer also does a good amount of damage.

For minion, I’d say this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndbjMal61aua07JAJFPT9kCuBH6RuSXLA-jAxAUEokXR0Y11YKXioaA-e

Pick up on axe and inflict vulnerability to boost your minions damage. Axe and minions go well because spite includes both axe mastery and minion damage and thus boosting both you and your minions’ damage. In addition, minions cover for axe/focus’s weakness— namely poor windup times leading to you getting interrupted. Since the axe has nominal rage, you can unleash axe 2 behind your minions. Axe 3 is also a good skill now that you can get it off in safety. With minions siphoning health for you and a decent life pool, you can make use of retaliation.

Go berserker for full effect, with the other traits it’s not like you’ll be dying as long as you try to dodge. Protection of the horde gives you a nice amount of toughness while minions continuously steal life for you. Use staff’s mark of blood to heal your minions. Focus can also heal your minions as well.

I took consume conditions. I have not tried the new blood fiend, but conditions tend to be worrisome. Nevertheless, all three healing abilities have their pros and cons.

Bloodthirst and Mark of Evasion have their benefits, and it’s up to you. The former is more of a boon to yourself; the later is for your minions. Transfusion is good too if you want to support others as well as your minions.

In this build, your minions serve as your meat shields, life stealers, and for tagging, however they are also completely expendable. Even if they go down, you still output decent damage.

Thanks guys, I’m going to try out the MM builds you suggested. I appreciate the help.